Taking a closer look via video at three key Patriots plays from Sunday's win over the Panthers, which include:
- Christian Barmore breaking up a possible early touchdown;
- Josh McDaniels using a new personnel look that confused the Panthers and kickstarted a moribund offense with Rhamondre Stevenson;
- Barmore quickly diagnosing a difficult play to help ice the game.
1-10-NE 21 (13:41) (Shotgun) S.Darnold pass incomplete short left to C.McCaffrey (C.Barmore)
This is early in the second quarter and the game is still scoreless. The Panthers are driving and have a chance to take the early lead. The way these two teams play offense and the respective defenses, getting the first touchdown would be important (there were only two offensive scores all games combined).
Panthers offensive coordinators Joe Brady dialed up a beauty here, a wheel with the back the Patriots love to use as well (with James White often, but Brandon Bolden got one later against Shaq Thompson).
Here, the Panthers get exactly what they want after shifting Christan McCaffrey to the left side — McCaffrey one-on-one against Dont'a Hightower with no help.
McCaffrey easily beats Hightower and will cruise to a TD if Sam Darnold just throws the ball into space. Instead, the struggling QB throws a low ball that is deflected by Patriots rookie DT Christian Barmore, who saves the TD. It was equally a good play by Barmore, but also a poor play by Darnold. All he has to do is throw a ball that McCaffrey can go get — Hightower is in no position to recover — but instead he gets closer to Barmore and can't get it over him.
If the Panthers score here to take an early 7-0 lead, you never know how the game would change. Darnold probably would have gained a lot of confidence, and it might have put a little pressure on the Patriots' offense. Instead, due to Barmore's heroics, the Panthers only grab a 3-0 lead that the Patriots would eclipse on the next series.
2-11-NE 35 (10:28) (Shotgun) M.Jones pass short right to R.Stevenson to CAR 24 for 41 yards (J.Carter; J.Chinn)
After a run that went for a 1-yard loss, the Patriots appeared to be in trouble (again) offensively early in this one at 2nd and 11. Mac Jones had to call Bolden over and put him in the backfield with Rhamondre Stevenson, which was a new look to me (normal 21 personnel is with FB Jakob Johnson). Not sure if Bolden just lined up wrong, this was a check by Jones or a deliberate gameplan wrinkle by Josh McDaniels. I'm guessing it's the latter because it's a completely new look to me. All I know is that putting both halfbacks in the backfield led to confusion that left Stevenson uncovered for a 41-yard screen pass that set up the team's first touchdown.
After the snap, both Thompson and Jermaine Carter cover Bolden — they are totally confused. One of them, likely Carter, was supposed to be on Stevenson. Instead, DE Morgan Fox is the only one out there with a prayer against Stevenson because everyone else is in man coverage. The blown coverage leaves Stevenson off to the races and after 41 yards — and a block in the back penalty by Jakobi Meyers that was generously picked up — the Patriots' offense was, finally, in business.
2-10-NE 20 (7:12) S.Darnold pass short left intended for I.Thomas INTERCEPTED by J.Jackson at NE 12. J.Jackson for 88 yards, TOUCHDOWN.
Wasn't going to include this play because it was fairly obvious how big it was, but more study revealed it was a better play than initially thought — specifically from Barmore.
The Panthers are running an outside zone run fake to the right. In the play design, you are expecting the linemen to flow with the running motion. Barmore does initially but in a split second, he sees that Darnold is actually faking the run and will be running a boot to the back side. Barmore does a great job of reading the play and then his explosion toward Darnold is very impressive for a big guy. That starts to panic Darnold, and then Matthew Judon's quick close causes a catastrophic mistake with the interception to JC Jackson, who was just basically watching the play.
While a decent QB makes the little checkdown or at least throws it away (we'd kill Jones for this mistake), Barmore made this play possible by his initial read and athletic ability.
Darnold's INT reminded me of this one by Cam Newton last year against the 49ers (7:20 mark).
